THREE:The days of Chatham were far nearer their close than was suspected. One more sudden blaze of his high intellect, and he was gone. Whilst the subject of America continued to be discussed in both Houses with much acrimony and little result, the Duke of Richmond, seeing that Chatham did not come forward, took a decided step. He gave notice, on the 7th of April, of an address to the king, entreating him to withdraw both his fleets and armies from the United States, and make peace with them on such terms as should secure their goodwill. Chatham was roused effectually by this notice. Wrapped in flannel, pale and emaciated, he was supported into the House by his son William, and his son-in-law, Lord Mahon. His large wig seemed to bury his worn, shrunken face, except the still piercing eye and the aquiline nose. When the Duke of Richmond had made his motion, and Lord Weymouth, one of the Secretaries of State, had replied to it, Chatham arose. Lord Camden says that in speaking "he was not like himself: his speech faltered, his sentences were broken, and his mind not master of itself. His words were shreds of unconnected eloquence; and flashes of the same fire, which he, Prometheus-like, had stolen from heaven, were then returning to the place whence they were taken." All was deep attention, and even in bosoms antagonistic in principle were profound interest and respect. His words, weak and halting at first, grew, as he warmed with his subject, into much of the power and harmony of former days, and battling with his feebleness of frame he put forth, in one last great effort, the power of his spirit.
FORE:This and other events at length convinced the stupid and ungrateful Emperor that the war was[56] hopeless. Russia had as good as deserted him; Prussia, so lately won over, was again wavering; Sweden and Holland had joined the allies; and Spain, so far from helping him, could not drive the enemy from a corner of its own territory. He therefore listened to terms of peace which were offered by the allies through the pacific medium of Fleury, and the preliminaries were signed at Paris by the Austrian Ambassador on the 31st of May with England, France, and Holland. The Emperor agreed to suspend for seven years the charter of the Ostend Company; to confirm all treaties previous to 1725; and to refer any other objects of dispute to a general congress. Several articles were introduced regarding Spain. The English consented to withdraw the fleet of Admiral Hosier from blockading Porto Bello, so that the galleons could return home; the siege of Gibraltar was to be discontinued, and the Prince Frederick to be restored. These articles were signed by the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, but Philip himself never ratified them, and England and Spain continued in a dubious state of neither peace nor war.He dropped the subject, finished his drink and, with the others, partook of a frozen sherbet also prepared in the yachts icing plant.
FORE:But we have far overshot the contemporary history of Bengal. The Presidency thought it had greatly benefited by the reforms of Clive; yet it had since been called upon to furnish large supplies of men and money to support the unprincipled transactions at Madras, which we have briefly detailed, and the India House, instead of paying the usual dividends, was compelled to reduce them. Further, a terrible famine devastated Bengal, and more than half the population are said to have been swept away. This state of things compelled Parliament to turn its attention to India. General Burgoyne, now active in the Opposition, moved and carried, on the 13th of April, 1772, a resolution for the appointment of a select Committee of thirteen members to inquire into Indian affairs; and Burgoyne, who was extremely hostile to Clive, was appointed chairman. The committee went actively to work, and presented two reports during the Session. After Parliament met again in November, Lord North, who had conversed with Clive during the recess, called for and carried a resolution for another and this time a secret committee. As the Company was in still deeper difficulties, and came to Lord North to borrow a million and a half, he lent them one million four hundred thousand pounds, on condition that they should keep their dividends at six per cent. until this debt was repaid, and afterwards at eight per cent. He at the same time relieved them from the payment of the four hundred thousand pounds per annum, imposed by Lord Chatham, for the same period. This was done in February, 1773, and in April he brought in a Bill at the suggestion of Clive, who represented the Court of Proprietors at the India House as a regular bear-garden, on account of men of small capital and smaller intelligence being enabled to vote. By North's Bill it was provided that the Court of Directors should, in future, instead of being annually elected, remain in office four years; instead of five hundred pounds stock qualifying for a vote in the Court of Proprietors, one thousand pounds should alone give a vote; three thousand pounds, two votes; and six thousand pounds, three votes. The Mayor's Court in Calcutta was restricted to petty cases of trade; and a Supreme Court was established, to consist of a Chief Justice and three puisne judges, appointed by the Crown. The Governor-General of Bengal was made Governor-General of India. These nominations were to continue for five years, and then to return to the Directors, but subject to the approval of the Crown. Whilst the Bill was in progress, the members of the new Council were named. Warren Hastings was appointed the first Governor-General; and in his Council were Richard Barwell, who was already out there, General Clavering, the Honourable Colonel Monson, and Philip Francis.[323] Another clause of Lord North's Bill remitted the drawback on the Company's teas for export to America, an act little thought of at the time, but pregnant with the loss of the Transatlantic colonies. By these "regulating acts," too, as they were called, the Governor-General, members of Council, and judges, were prohibited from trading, and no person in the service of the king or Company was to be allowed to receive presents from native princes, nabobs, or their ministers or agents. Violent and rude, even, was the opposition raised by the India House and all its partisans to these two Bills.Bolingbroke was now Prime Minister, and he hastened to arrange his Cabinet entirely on Jacobite principles. So far as he was concerned, the country was to be handed over to the Pretender and popery on the queen's death. He would not run the risk of a new antagonist in the shape of a Lord Treasurer, but put the Treasury in commission, with Sir William Wyndham at its head. The Privy Seal was given to Atterbury; Bromley was continued as the other Secretary of State; and the Earl of Mar, the rankest of Jacobites, was made Secretary of State for Scotland. Ormonde, long engaged in the Pretender's plot, was made Commander-in-Chiefa most significant appointment; Buckingham was made Lord President, and Harcourt Lord Chancellor. As for the inferior posts, he found great difficulty in filling them up. "The sterility of good men," wrote Erasmus Lewis to Swift, "is incredible." Good men, according to the unprincipled Bolingbroke's notions, were not to be found in a hurry. There were plenty of candidates ready, but it may give an impressive notion of the state of that party, that there was scarcely a man beyond those already appointed whom Bolingbroke could trust. The Cabinet never was completed. What his own notions of moral or political honesty were, may be imagined from the fact that he did not hesitate to attempt a coalition with the Whigs. He gave a dinner-party at his house in Golden Square to Stanhope, Walpole, Craggs, General Cadogan, and other leaders; but though Walpole, when Minister himself, boasted that every man had his price, Bolingbroke had not yet discovered Walpole's price nor that of his colleagues. They to a man demanded, as a sine qua non, that the Pretender should be compelled to remove to Rome, or to some place much farther off than Lorraine, and Bolingbroke assured them that the queen would never consent to such a banishment of her brother. Nothing but the lowest opinion of men's principles could have led Bolingbroke to expect any other result from these Whig leaders. Perhaps he only meant to sound their real views; perhaps only to divert public attention from his real designs, which the very names of his coadjutors in the Ministry must have made patent enough to all men of any penetration. The very same day that he thus gave this Whig dinner he assured Gualtier that his sentiments towards "the king" were just the same as ever, provided his Majesty took such measures as would suit the people of England. Time only was wanting for this traitor-Minister to betray the country to its old despotisms and troubles; but such time was not in the plans of Providence. The end of Anne was approaching faster than was visible to human eyes; but the shrewd and selfish Marlborough had a pretty strong instinct of it, and was drawing nearer and nearer to the scene of action, ready to secure himself whichever way[22] the balance inclined. He was at Ostend, prepared to pass over at an hour's notice, and to the last moment keeping up his correspondence with the two Courts of Hanover and Bar-le-duc. Both despised and suspected him, but feared him at the same time. Such was still his influence, especially with the army, that whichever party he adopted was considered pretty sure to succeed. That it was likely to succeed was equally certain before Marlborough did adopt it. Lockhart of Carnwath, one of the most active and sagacious Jacobites, and likely to be in the secrets of the Jacobite party, says that the Pretender, to test the sincerity of Marlborough, asked the loan of one hundred thousand pounds from him, as a proof of his fidelity. He did not abide the test, but soon afterwards offered twenty thousand pounds to the Electoral Prince, to enable him to come over to England. The moment that Marlborough was prepared, with his deep-rooted love of money, to do that, it might be certainly pronounced that he was confident of the success of the Hanoverians.
FORE:In the meantime, General Gage landed at Boston on the 13th of May. The Port Bill had preceded him a few days, and the tone of the other colonies rendered the Bostonians firmer in their temper than ever. On the 25th of May General Gage announced to the Assembly at Boston the unpleasant fact, that he was bound to remove, on the 1st of June, the Assembly, the courts of justice, and all the public offices, to Salem, in conformity with the late Act. As they petitioned him to set apart a day for fasting, he declined that, and, to prevent further trouble, adjourned them to the 7th of June, to meet at Salem.
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